Death by Shakespeare Illustrations

My linocut chapter illustration for Chapter 1 of ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup

In early March, like everyone else I guess, my attention was taken by current events and the impending pandemic. Sure enough, once schools closed as the lock-down set in, I found I had little time and less energy. Blogging is one of the things I neglected. I managed to keep posting art to Instagram and made a point to post women in science daily for Women's History Month, trying to avoid the all-too-common physicist's mistake of playing arm-chair epidemiologist (and assuming if you've mastered numerical modelling that you know what to do) or since I share a lot of science communication, I wanted to avoid talking about Covid-19, because I have no pertinent expertise (being a scientist doesn't qualify you to talk about all subjects and this one in particular needed I think, fewer self-appointed experts muddying the waters). Also, since "doomscrolling" is now a recognized fixation of people, I wanted to break up people's mounting tension with art. So I have been sharing a lot of art and making art when not amateur homeschooling our son... but not much else. Today, I'm playing catch up.

My linocut chapter illustration for Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup

I neglected to share this here, though I am excited to be able to share. Last fall I made the chapter illustrations for ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup! I just got my copies in the mail right before the lock-down. Such a fun project researching, planning and carving linocut chapter headings for 11 chapters about how Shakespeare offed his characters (see handy pie chart here). The illustrations are supposed to be reminiscent of the engravings you would see in old books, and set the scene for each chapter. I made the linocuts at 4 times the scale that they appear to get the details I wanted. I spent October reading about Shakespeare, his plays and life, poisons, weapons, Renaissance medicine and various awful corporal and capital punishment techniques. And the language of flowers.

My linocut chapter illustration for Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup

The first chapter was fairly straightforward, about the bard himself. So in conversation with author and publisher I choose plume, inkwell, drama masks and the spear from Shakespeare’s coat of arms.
The 2nd chapter is about Shakespeare’s world. Since he wrote “all the world’s a stage” and literally named his theatre The Globe, I thought of illustrating the Globe and its neighbourhood. The 3rd chapter is about medicine and what could be treated in Shakepear's day. My first thought was William Harvey who discovered the circulation of blood in Shakespeare’s day, but we opted for some more general images of contemporary medicine (rather than referencing specific experiments of Harvey which aren’t mentioned in the text). The urology flask was used as a sign for a doctor, as testing urine was a vital diagnostic tool. I was able to find a lot of reference prints for Renaissance surgical tools. Medicinal plants included the poppy and mandrake root - a fun thing to research! In the centre is a specific allusion to Shakespeare’s ‘Pericles’ where a medical chest was thrown overboard. I researched antique medical chests and first imagined it viewed through a round porthole window. Then I decided I had better check if 16th century vessels had round porthole windows and wasn’t able to find any hard evidence that they did. So I went for some nautical looking rope to frame that part of the image instead to avoid any anachronism.⠀

My linocut chapter illustration for Chapters 8, 9 and 10 of ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup

Chapter 4 was a little grim for me, to be honest, spending a few days thinking about execution. This print includes heads on spikes, noose, executioner’s mask, block and axe, as well as a Gibbet. If you aren’t familiar, don’t look them up. There’s a lot of murder in Shakespeare and most of them, in fact most deaths in the plays, are stabbings. So for Chapter 5 I researched Renaissance weapons, knives, swords and daggers. We’ve also got Clarence in the butt of malmsey and Desdemona with the pillow. A butt is a specific type of barrel or even a unit of volume of the time and I now know a bunch of barrel and cask facts! Chapter 6 is the “dogs of war.” When I was younger I read all the history plays and I have a great illustrated collection of the plays. They cover centuries of history so there were variations in arms and armour over that time but the majority of stories of war in Shakespeare are about England and the War of the Roses, so I wanted to include the lions and fleur de lys shield and the white and red roses of Lancaster and York. The phrase “the dogs of war” made me think of an inexorable march so I wanted spears, pikes, halberds and pennants to suggest advancing armies. Chapter 7 is “A Plague O’both Your Houses” about disease. The plague itself and a plague doctor’s mask were clearly needed! Rats, suspected plague carriers also make an appearance. I looked into the history of plague doctor masks which varied in different times and places. The other imagery is more subtle: roses are geese were associated with syphillis! I keep thinking about the Untitled Goose Game and giggling to myself. I wanted the geese to be aggressive looking.⠀The plague mask feels more topical now than I could ever imagine.

Poison was my favourite chapter to illustrate for ‘Death by Shakespeare’ - bottles, pots, and vials of fluids and powder. Renaissance apothecary jars are delightfully imperfect. Cleopatra’s venomous asp also makes an appearance as well as poisonous plants and mushroom known and used at the time: aconite, hellbane, deadly nightshade, yew and fly agaric. Chapter 9 is about Shakespeare’s characters who take their own lives, so we wanted to treat this sensitively and symbolically, so we have Ophelia’s flowers. There is a long tradition of the language of flowers and Ophelia herself specifies what several mean. She mentions rosemary, pansies, fennel, violets, columbines and daisies.⠀Chapter 10 is about the effects grief and broken-heartedness . A conceptual chapter is a bit less obvious but what came to mind was memento mori, symbolic reminders of our mortality which have long played a part of art history. The symbolism runs deep, but I tried to incorporate and stick to symbols common in Shakespeare’s day. The skull is common of course- and famously used precisely as a reminder of our mortality in Hamlet. The hourglass and candle (which could be snuffed out) represent our finite lifetimes. The live flowers contrast with the skull but wilting flowers again suggest our lives are finite. Butterflies are also common and can be a symbol of the soul. I enjoyed carving this one.

My linocut chapter illustration for Chapter 11, how it appeared in the book and the cover (cover art not by me) of ‘Death by Shakespeare’ by Kathryn Harkup

The strange misfit Shakespearean deaths chapter includes “Exit, pursued by a bear,” baked in a pie, an ounce of flesh, lightening and um, severed hands. I worried about getting the bear species right. There are a lot of poorly identified bears on the internet, let me tell you. ⠀
This is the first time I have done all the illustrations for a book, something I've long wanted to do and it was a real treat to have a fascinating and rich topic like this.

New York City: Day 3

Saturday, we had breakfast at the hotel, then headed back to Manhatten. An old friend CM, currently living in Connecticut, suggested we get together, so my Mom and I met her at Grand Central Station. She's in NY reasonably frequently and naturally fell into pointing out the sites. We walked toward Rockerfeller Center and then looked for a place to have lunch and catch up.



Mom mentioned that I wanted to find a suit for a job interview and CM lead us to Saks Fifth Avenue. There, I got a lot of help from a savvy Swiss sales woman, whom Mom (always the tennis fiend) seemed to befriend by saying that Roger Federer was her hero. I managed to find a suit which was classic, flattering and thankfully on sale. I wasn't sure if CM was going to be free for more than lunch, but it turned out that her husband had taken their young kids to see his parents and she was free to have a girls' day in the city. It was good to catch up, and wonderful to have a second and third opinion and also to feel that I could take my time as she and Mom chatted while I tried things on. She did venture off to look at the children's clothes and reported back that she had spied a 'chocolate bar' (as in a desert place specializing in chocolate) upstairs. So we treated ourselves to brownies and coffee; we were on vacation after all.

I had wanted to wander around Soho so we got in a cab and headed south. We browsed shops and galleries and enjoyed the sunshine.





Yes, those are heads on strings in the window.








I liked the view of ordinary people walking the street, more or less oblivious to the skeleton.


CM wanted to be back in Connecticut early enough that she could drive home before dark. Though, quite quickly traffic became snarled and there was no hope of catching a cab. We tried to walk to a larger thoroughfare to no avail. So, we found a subway, and though we had to fight with the card-reading machine, we got to the busy platform. Then, we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, when the train arrived, it was packed, of course. We got on the busiest train I've seen since I lived in Tokyo. Luckily, everyone was good natured about it. I apologized when I was pushed into the people in front of me and they said that of course it wasn't my fault. Our neighbours asked when we had to get off so they could let us by. CM missed her first train, but the next one apparently allowed her to be home before dark. In Grand Central, there was either a brave or crazy couple having wedding photos taken. We said goodbye to CM and then headed toward the Cort Theatre.

CM had given us a list of suggested restaurants, but we were pretty tired after we reached the theatre. We managed to find a Japanese restaurant, Sapporo, around the corner. The food was great and really reasonably priced. Mom had booked us ticket to see the screwball comedy 'Born Yesterday', with Jim Belushi, Nina Arianda and Robert Sean Leonard. Originally performed, made into a movie and set in 1947, the play tells the story of a boorish, bullying, less-than-honest millionaire businessman Harry Brock (Belushi), and his (not-so) dumb, blond mistress Billie (Arianda) who come to Washington so he can increase his sway and influence by bribing a Senator. Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson, on House) plays Paul, the reporter Brock's lawyer tells him to impress. Brock, feeling that Billie's ignorance means she just doesn't fit in, in Washington, hires Paul to educate her. Paul, of course, is smitten. The story is familiar from Pygmalion or perhaps, a bit of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, with a few twists which add commentary on the political process, influence peddling and democracy. Plus, it's very funny. Arianda, whom I haven't seen previously, stole the show. She even made shuffling cards funny. She of course, goes from the heavy-drinking, lazy-thinking, bullied 'concubine' to the confident, clear-sighted woman with a thirst for knowledge (even though she still garnered laughs with the 'out of the mouth of babes' type comments). The set - a lavish hotel room - was beautiful. The audience clapped as soon as they raised the curtain. Even the theatre itself was lovely, the usher was hilarious, and the feeling conspiratorial. It was a great evening. We really enjoyed the show - and I was particularly pleased to see two such disparate plays.

Our trip back to Queens by subway was uneventful this time and we got in before midnight.

New York City: Day 2

Friday, we got up and had breakfast at a nearby diner, before heading back to Manhattan. First on my agenda was the Alexander McQueen 'Savage Beauty' exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of art. We had failed to predict that Friday would be a busy day there, thinking it would be a better choice than the weekend. We arrived at 10:30 and we should have arrived at 9:30, in hindsight. There was a huge line-up, meandering through all their ancient Near Eastern collection, to the late 19th century (Rodin through Pre-Raphealites) for at least half an hour. I felt a bit guilty as this was my agenda and Mom only had a vague idea of what it was all about. She knew a) he was dead and b) that his house had designed Kate's dress for the Royal Wedding. At least, the slow walk was through beautiful things - though standing is more tiring than walking. The exhibit was more than worth the wait! The video on the Met blog does show each room in the exhibit, but you don't entirely get the full sensory experience, of course. The collection was displayed according to theme (“The Romantic Mind,”, "Romantic Gothic," "Cabinet of Curiosities" - sure to be a hit with me, both as a wunderkammer and due to the incredible hats especially by Philip Treacy, "Romantic Nationalism" - Scottish, of course, "Romantic Exoticism" included the most beautiful Japanese-inspired embroidered silks, "Romantic Primitivism" and "Romantic Naturalism" which included his final jellyfish and snakeskins in computer-generated imagery on fabric and shoes). The curation and display of the clothing was very thoughtful; the displays were like theatrical sets and along with the music and other audiovisuals (film clips of fashion shows, lighting effects and one holographic film) really placed the viewer in a certain mindspace. I loved how he worked with anything: mud, clam shells, metal, glass, feathers of course, but also bone, antlers, resin replica gator heads, skins to hi-tech fabrics, all with impeccable tailoring. He seemed to take inspiration from everywhere (from natural history, to art history, to political history, Asia, to Africa to Scotland, it's all there). Such unfettered imagination is a rare thing. It's incredible he produced so much in a life too short.








All photos of the 'Savage Beauty' exhibit are via the Met blog and © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce





We also passed by the special exhibit of contemporary artists re-interpreting African and Oceanian masks in centemporary materials, which was right up my alley. After the exhibit we had lunch in the cafeteria at the Met (very good, by the way) and decided to continue to the Guggenheim. Along the way it started raining unexpectedly (which was annoying since we had both left umbrellas at the hotel).


Unfortunately, the Guggenheim is in the midst of renovations so only part of its permanent collection was on view. When we finished, there was a full thundershower in effect. So, after attempting to wait it out in the store, we ventured out and then settled on hailing a cab. My mother did some shopping... or rather some trying on of clothing. Then, we ventured out again when the rain let up. I had said I wanted to get a suit (job interview and all) so Mom lead me to Ralph Lauren. I suspected this was mad, and that I would be unwilling to sell my internal organs for the price of a suit there. It turned out my fears were correct, but, it was pretty.



We meandered through the intermittent rain to the Lincoln Center. Mom had reserved tickets to War Horse. I didn't know much about it in advance, but Mom had be convinced at "giant horse puppet". We found a really good French restaurant across the street, where they sat us at a communal round table (like one might expect in Chinatown). I wore my dress all day, but carried heels in my purse, knowing that I would regret standing and walking in them all day.




The show was tremendous. The more-than-life-sized horse puppets, though stylized, were so naturalistic in movements and 'behaviour' that it was easy to suspend belief. Each horse was enacted by three actors, but felt like its own entity. The acting and singing was compelling. I also really enjoyed the sketches and simple linework black-and-white animation projected on a large white, cloudlike backdrop. The play tells the story of a horse, Joey, and his boy in the English countryside at the turn of the last century. The beloved horse is sold to the English Cavalry with the advent of WWI and the boy lies about his age to join up and try to rescue him. The writing was a bit manipulative of the audience I thought, but perhaps that is reflective of both the subject matter and its origins of a story for children (older children, I hope... warstories are by nature violent). Nonetheless it was great experience.

After the show it took a long time to get back to the hotel. We had decided on a route which would involve only two trains, but our B train never seemed to arrive though three 1's went by... so I made a new plan involving three trains and we made it back after midnight.